Cresta Confederada
Hidden away in a seemingly endless maze of red rock hills, caves, and crevices, Cresta Confederada or in English, Confederate Ridge is among one of the most concealed positions on the former Texas-Mexico border. Named for its use by "Undefeated" rebel soldiers fleeing the former CSA into Mexico to continue their fight for freedom, Cresta Confederada was rendered mostly vacant by 1867 and between that time and the War saw little use, however in the post-War world it acts as a hideout for those who would seek shelter from prosecution or the elements, most notably Pancho Mendoza's People's Legion which has occupied the ridge since the beginning of La Guerra de La Ciudadela with Rey Cristobol. History Pre-War The area that would be known as Cresta Confederada was and still is a three or four mile strip of red rocks, hills, and crevices with a flat quarter mile long ridge nestled in the middle which is nearly impossible to get to. The area was mostly avoided due to the superstitious beliefs of local Comanche Indians who believed the ridge and surrounding maze of red rocks to be haunted by the spirits of Spanish conquistadors who were massacred by Aztec warriors in a brutal ambush towards the end of the Aztec Empire. The area would be named Cresta Confederada however not for dead conquistadors, rather for being the campsite of "Undefeated" Confederate soldiers fleeing Texas to help form a Confederate colony in Mexico. These soldiers were specifically members of a Texas cavalry unit seeking to join Missouri General Jo Shelby and his thousand confederate soldiers seeking to become an auxiliary of Emperor Maximilian's army. The soldiers, led by Major Barnum Abbot crossed the Rio Grande with fifty men and close to two hundred federal soldiers only half a mile behind them. However the federal soldiers didn't care about crossing the border any more than Abbot's men did, they illegally followed the Confederates into Mexico who retreated into Cresta Confederada's maze of red rocks. Not knowing where they were going, Abbot miraculously found a way to reach the ridge and camped his troops there. The federals were unable to locate the confederate troops who stayed camped on the ridge for two weeks until deciding that they had no chance of finding Shelby's men and needed to form a colony. The Confederate soldiers would move out to local Mexican villages and marry Mexican brides, bringing them back onto the ridge where they built a small town with gold financed by raids into Union controlled Texas where they looted carpetbagger controlled banks and ranches. However only two years later their colony was crushed by the newly formed Mexican revolutionary army who attacked the colony after the rebel raiders under Major Abbot attacked a small cattle drive full of beeves owned by Texas carpetbaggers but being driven to market by Mexican vaqueros. The death of three vaqueros brought attention to the small Confederate colony and on June 9th, 1867 the colony was burned to the ground by the Mexican army in retaliation with most of the confederates killed, the only notable survivor being Major Abbot who returned to his homestate of Arkansas to live the rest of his days out as a cotton broker. After the destruction of the colony, the ridge and the surrounding badlands became known as Cresta Confederada, Spanish for Confederate Ridge. The area was known to locals on the Rio Grande and the maze of red rocks was occasionally braved by campers and hunters, however men rarely set foot on the ridge until the war and still didn't for long afterwards. The ridge remained a hard to access plateau surrounded by beautiful red rocks for over two centuries until the Great War The War Cresta Confederada was obviously not bombed during the war due to its lack of any people with the only life in the area being sagebushes, cacti, deer, and rabbits. While many people fled into the hills on the day of the war to survive, none did and the area was coated in radiation. Post-War After the war the caves and crevices of Cresta Confederada were as silent as ever for scores upon scores of years. Survivors occasionally found their way into the maze of red rocks but died and for the first half century after the war there were many feral ghouls roaming the rocks. All in all the badlands remained vacant and empty as they had before the war, the land wouldn't have known that the bombs fell as even when people did try to rebuild civilization, they avoided the rocks due to fear of ghosts, fear of being lost in the maze of the rocks, and the lack of any resource of value. Cresta Confederada would later see use in the 2258 when a young comanchero named Billy Juarez found the red rock maze while on the run from a group of nearby townsfolk who were attempting to lynch the young man for raping and killing a young woman in Hidalgo. Juarez, a minor comanchero who specialized in highway robbery managed to hideout for a week in the red rocks and even marked a trail to the actual ridge which he found by luck. He would later leave and form the Juarez Gang, a low level group of highwaymen whose only significance was for killing the infamous retired gunfighter, Frank Turner and then taking his young apprentice and future communist militia leader, Pancho Mendoza into the gang. In 2267, nine years after Juarez found the ridge and five years after Mendoza joined, Juarez returned with his gang to flee from bounty killers hired by the Texican Caravan Company. Juarez tried to ambush the bounty hunters however he failed and was killed, with Mendoza being the only survivor. However Mendoza, who learned the way to the ridge would later return after he founded La Legión de la Gente, a communist partisan group dedicated to overthrowing La Ciudadela's government and Rey Cristobol. In his eleven year brushfire war against the rey, Pancho used the ridge to garrison his army in the winter months and kept a permanent garrison which he still maintains. The ridge has been used as a hideout as so far only the legionnaires know how to navigate the maze of rocks to get to it. Aside from being a winter home, Mendoza has also used the ridge as a place to plan out his attacks on Casa Roja, La Ciudadela, caravans, cattle drives, and any other target whose destruction would negatively impact the rey. Over the eleven years he has used it, the ridge has grown to house a cantina, a radio station, a small cabin for planning and for Mendoza to sleep in, three bunkhouses, a small armory, and plenty of tents for the rest of the legionnaires. Since Mendoza took over Casa Roja with the help of Los Hermanos de Sangre, Cresta Confederada's large garrison has been depleted as now the main legion force is garrisoned at Casa Roja as they prepare for their final assault on Rey Cristobol's small kingdom. The only real reason for maintaining a garrison is to keep the small town that has been built and to keep the radio station up. Government Cresta Confederada is currently a military base governed by the People's Legion and all personnel on the ridge are legionnaires. Any threat to the ridge is handled by the legionnaires on duty and those not on duty are generally free to pass the time however they see fit as long as they abide by the basic rules of no thieving, killing, fighting, or sabotage. All crimes committed in Cresta Confederada are by Pancho Mendoza's orders punishable by only one thing, the firing squad. Geography The area of Cresta Confederada is three or four miles of red rocks with the northern edges of these rocks touching the mighty Rio Grande. The area is located twenty three miles northwest of Casa Roja and twenty four miles west of Hidalgo. It is thirty four miles northwest of La Ciudadela Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas Category:Places Category:Sites